It’s not particularly surprising to the movie-going public how former presidents will be portrayed on screen. Nixon has Frost/Nixon (2008) showing the paranoid man still defending his corrupt presidency. JFK has Thirteen Days (2000), a film about the most consequential event of his time in office rather than his now legendary philandering. George W. Bush has W. (2008), a satire to some and spot on judgement to others. Barack Obama’s first dramatic on screen portrayal is a peculiar one; it’s a love story. I guarantee films will follow charting Obama’s handling of wars, the economy, and everything in between, but writer/director Richard Tanne kicks off the deluge with a light romance, the first “date” between Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson.

I put “date” in quotes because Michelle (Tika Sumpter, Ride Along 2) swears it is not a date. She was led to believe Barack (Parker Sawyers, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) was taking her to a community meeting. Barack planned to do just that; however, he neglected to mention the art exhibit, a picnic, drinks, and a movie. Tanne says these events are mostly how the first date happened, except for the community meeting which was a little later in real life. Also, the conversations are Tanne’s creations because only two people on Earth can really know what the two talked about that day.

It’s a good guess by Tanne that Barack and Michelle tackled their respective childhoods and immediate plans for the future. The audience will keep thinking about the future at the expense of the film’s present because we know what lies ahead for the young couple. Tanne says he purposefully included no foreshadowing or winks to the future but I disagree. At the community meeting, Barack gives an off the cuff speech alluding to his future self. Referencing Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, Barack says he feels like “our” mayor but he has also disappointed in some respects; Washington realized it is not easy to get things done. Feels awfully similar if you ask me.

Southside With You is not red vs. blue political. It visually confronts the brutal reality of Chicago’s Southside when the camera slowly pans across a wall of names we can only guess signify victims of gang violence. However, there are no mentions of health care, defense spending, or abortion. Partisan Republicans may accuse Tanne of bathing Barack and Michelle in golden sunshine, but it’s a first date movie. When you’re out with a girl you think may be the one the world already seems a bit brighter than the day before.

It definitely looks hot. The date occurred in the summer of 1989 and Tanne is not too subtle about that. Janet Jackson’s “Miss You Much” blares on Barack’s car radio which is the same station talking about the new Spike Lee movie, Do the Right Thing. Some critics say the film will cause minorities to riot and co-workers at Michelle’s law firm say it is racist to whites. Apparently based on fact, Barack and Michelle went to see Do the Right Thing on their first date and it’s pretty coincidental that the President who helped redefine race in the United States and prove anyone can ascend to the mightiest job in the land saw one of the most poignant films ever made about race relations that night.

Do the Right Thing isn’t the only art/culture reference in the film because there is a subject heavily debated on first dates, what do you like / what do you not like not? Barack teaches Michelle about Ernie Barnes and his connection to Good Times, they both quote a Gwendolyn Brooks poem (a bit suspicious if you ask me), and they agree Stevie Wonder is the greatest but disagree on which album is his best. Notice, by the way, when Michelle talks about Stevie or her family or how hard she works at the law office to be seen as more than just a black woman, how razor sharp her words are. I don’t mean word choice but her enunciation. Sumpter over-pronounces every last syllable and while she nails Michelle’s confidence, her diction borders on caricature.

Sawyers physically resembles Barack more than Sumpter looks like Michelle, but he gets the easier acting job. Just the right amount of laid back swagger touching arrogance is enough to get us on board that he makes a passable Barack. Chicago’s Southside is also authentic because Tanne shot the film in the city. Michelle’s house in the movie is two blocks away from the real house she grew up in; that is a church Barack spoke in, and those are the Altgeld Gardens projects they drive by. That certainly is a beat up 1982 Nissan Sentra hatchback with cassettes on the dash and snubbed out cigarettes in the ashtray. Everybody knows Barack used to smoke and he’s a borderline chainsmoker here. Operating on a micro-budget, Richard Tanne shows us a decent 1989 and an intriguing first date. It’s not Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, the best first date yet filmed, but it’s a good starting point for the inevitable Obama movies to come.